With quick, gentle fingers Loyola skilfully bound up the wound, using a strip of flannel torn from Bill's shirt, and Broncho's gay, silk kerchief, which the cowboy always wore, prairie fashion, round his neck.
Hardly had she finished her bandaging before the boy opened his eyes and looked round wonderingly.
"Wha's th' matter?" he asked faintly.
"W'y, you tried to outhold that wound o' yours, sonny, an' it overplayed you; but Missy Lolie has done bound it up an' blocked its little game," explained Broncho, smiling on him with a great affection in his eyes.
"Dear little Jim!" cried Loyola impulsively, flinging her arms round the boy and kissing him. "You'll feel better soon."
"Lay him down on the blankets," said Jack, in a low voice.
He and Tari still pulled steadily—they did not dare stop—and Tari kept the boat's head straight, no one being at the steering-oar.
With tender hands the boy was placed full length in the bottom of the boat, and Loyola insisted on his having a whole extra cocoanut served out to him.
This the boy drank off with feverish haste, betraying to the others the torments of thirst he must have been suffering the whole afternoon.
The milky juice put new strength into him, and declaring vehemently that he felt all right, he wanted to get up and take the steering-oar again; but this the others would not allow, and he had to remain lying where he was.